13 Exercise Cues That Will Leave You Baffled and What They Actually Mean

In virtually every exercise, maintaining the right spine alignment is crucial—avoiding excessive rounding or arching. It's challenging to define exactly what 'too much' means, so trainers often use various metaphors to explain what we're aiming for.

You might be told that your ribcage should be 'stacked' over your pelvis or that your spine should be in a 'neutral' position. This doesn't imply that your spine must be perfectly straight; rather, it means that your torso shouldn't form a banana-like curve with your belly sticking out and your hips and shoulders out of alignment—or the reverse, with your back rounded and your hips and shoulders hunched together.

When performing squats, you might hear the cue to 'spread the floor with your feet' or to imagine standing on a piece of wrapping paper and tearing it apart.

The goal is to engage all the muscles in your legs, especially those on the outer sides of your hips. By attempting to spread the floor, you'll activate your adductors and glutes, leading to a more powerful and stable leg position.

Your shoulder blades are the oddly shaped bones on your back that move as your arms do. (Scapula is the medical term.) In exercises where your arms are pulled toward your torso, like rows, you want your lats—the latissimus dorsi—to do most of the work.

To achieve this, you'll need to contract your back muscles so that your shoulders move down and slightly back. Picture the back pockets of your jeans and try to slide your shoulder blades into them. This action engages your lats and other shoulder and back muscles, ensuring they’re working together.

In yoga, 'opening' a body part refers to creating space by moving different body parts away from one another. For your chest (or 'heart's center'), this means stretching by pulling your shoulders apart. You engage your upper back muscles while stretching the chest muscles. You may also be encouraged to expand your ribcage, which helps activate the tiny muscles between your ribs.

When performing squats, a common mistake for beginners is letting the knees drift toward each other or even pressing against each other. It might feel like it makes the exercise easier, but it also means you're not maintaining a strong body position or fully engaging all the muscles that should be working.

To correct this, think about pushing your knees outward, away from each other. (In this context, 'out' means pushing them to the sides of your body.) As you grow stronger in weighted squats, it's important to note that this cue is particularly useful as you are descending into the squat. Once you're rising, it's fine for your knees to move in slightly, as long as everything else remains stable.

When you're preparing for a punch to the stomach—perhaps you're lying down and see your toddler or pet running up to jump on you—you'll naturally tighten your core muscles to brace for impact. This is the concept you're aiming for: creating a firm, solid core by engaging all the muscles in your abdominal region. This method of core engagement is often used for exercises like squats, deadlifts, and other heavy lifts.

This and the previous bracing cue are different ways of instructing you to activate your core muscles. By drawing your belly button toward your spine, you engage the transverse abdominis, a muscle vital for spinal stabilization. (That said, bracing as though you're about to take a punch to the stomach might be a more effective method.) This cue is commonly heard in yoga and Pilates sessions.

In many yoga and Pilates exercises, it's important to avoid shrugging your shoulders upward. The cue to draw your shoulders down and away from your ears, or to lengthen your neck, isn't about your ears or neck per se; it's about activating the muscles in your back to pull your shoulders into proper alignment.

Although I’m not sure why oranges became the common reference here, it’s a memorable image, which is likely the goal. When setting up for a deadlift, the aim is to activate your lats to pull your shoulders downward toward your hips. These muscles are connected to your upper arms around your armpits, so engaging them reduces the space in the armpit. If you had an orange there, it would be squeezed. Watch this deadlift video to see how the lifter’s shoulders visibly retract, closing up the space in her armpits.

Your glutes, or butt muscles, are key for hip extension—essentially the action of moving from sitting to standing. Therefore, they need to contract as you reach the top of a squat or deadlift (both of which involve standing up). While we often hear to squeeze the glutes together (like imagining holding a coin between them, or maybe even more crude comparisons involving the anus), that’s not the goal. The focus is on ensuring a powerful finish as you rise, with both your glutes and leg muscles actively contracting.

Barbells do bend under enough weight, but what’s meant by “bending the bar” or “breaking it in half” is to apply enough force with your arms that it feels as though you're attempting to bend the bar itself.

In the bench press, grip the bar so that your pinky fingers are directed toward your back and shoulders—as if you’re aiming to bend the bar into a rainbow shape over your body. For a snatch or press, a similar instruction is given: envision bending it like a rainbow with the ends pointing downward. These cues are designed to activate your arms and back muscles, rather than focusing on the bar or your hands.

You might often hear the instruction to 'tuck your tailbone' in exercises where people tend to arch their backs too much. Avoid sticking your butt out too far behind you, as this throws your spine out of alignment. Instead, the goal is to maintain a neutral spine, with the tailbone tucked slightly to bring your hips under you while activating your core. Just be careful not to over-tuck, as it could create too much curvature in the opposite direction, causing your spine to bend unnaturally and make you appear hunched.

The 'squeeze the bar' cue is exactly what it sounds like: grasp the bar firmly. Although it's made of metal, the point isn't to do anything specifically to the bar. Instead, thinking about squeezing it encourages your body to engage more muscles, creating tension and stability throughout. This technique is especially beneficial for exercises where you need full-body activation and stability, ensuring that your muscles are all properly engaged for optimal performance.